5-at-10: Golf's divided path, are Mocs on tournament bubble and is Barkley leaving broadcasting?

Tiger Woods speaks during a news conference for the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Kang)
Tiger Woods speaks during a news conference for the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Kang)

Fore

A star-studded field of golf's best players were peppered Wednesday with questions.

Not about the famed course at Riviera.

Not about the looming majors or even the new Players Impact program in which big money is available to golfers with the most star power.

Not even the words of Tiger Woods, who said he will play again but will never play a full-time schedule. (He also added that his short game is better than it's been in a long time. Yes, that made me more than a little giddy.)

The discussion Wednesday among the names even the casual golf fan recognizes - Tiger, Rory, Rahm, among them - was the PGA Tour vs. the Saudi Tour.

It's been the long-whispered decision that is now the clear and even redundant question that is causing some of the game's best to start their answers with, "This will be the one time I talk about this," before discussing it.

Rahm and Tiger sounded fully committed to the PGA Tour rather than the Saudi league, which promises huge guaranteed dollars and less committed tournaments.

The PGA Tour is understandably wary of any form of competition, so much so that it has threatened to ban players who commit full-time to the Saudi league.

Truth be told, I don't think the elite players in their prime would leave and risk the chance to play every major and craft their legacy, so the Saudi league is not a direct threat to the PGA Tour.

But it could kill the Champions Tour, because guys like Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott - players later in their careers who would love to add another digit to the net worth while playing twice every six weeks - sound genuinely intrigued.

In truth, Tiger's reaffirmed commitment to the PGA Tour on Wednesday was likely the best news for golf's top league in a long time.

But it's clear Tiger and the rest of the players know the bargaining worm has turned and now is the time to renegotiate some of the work details the players want changed.

Among those could be a vastly different fall schedule as soon as 2023. The Golf Channel reported this morning that the players and the PGA Tour are trying to finalize a format in which the top 50 players in the FedEx are split into five 10-man teams for college-style team events to be played in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Stay tuned.

Side question: Since football is done and spring training is on pause, golf has to make a strong push in this vacuum, right?

Mocs' moment

TFP beat ace Gene of Many Hats Henley shares a preview of the Mocs' home game tonight.

Big picture, UTC's basketball bunch is good. Very good. The numbers and rankings and computer codes say they are a tournament team.

This morning, the Mocs' RPI - according to this - was 27th in the country, four spots behind Illinois and two spots in front of UConn.

Barring some unforeseen series of events or a massive injury or three, both Illinois and UConn have zero concerns about getting into the NCAA tournament.

Should the Mocs be in that conversation? Are the Mocs in that conversation? And, yes, those are entirely different questions.

UTC is ranked as a top-30 team by the numbers, which factor in strength of schedule and all the other bells and whistles.

But teamrankings.com's computer models and bracket projections tell a different tale.

How about this? According to the Team Rankings' rankings, UTC has a better chance to reach the Final Four (0.1%) than to get an at-large bid to the tournament (0.0% - yes, fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son).

We mentioned this earlier this year when UTC lost a couple of road games against Belmont (RPI 48th) and Murray State (RPI 40).

We wonder this again now, because in a perfect world I think we all want the Mocs to smoke through four days in Asheville and get into the tournament without any stress.

But if the SoCon is ever going to get more than an automatic bid, these Mocs have as good a resumé as any SoCon team since Steph was at Davidson.

Not so fast my friend

OK, Yoda might offer, "Wordy you got, brief you shall be" after those first two and the This and That below.

So, let's cover some sad news.

Chuck Barkley says he'll almost certainly retire from broadcasting when his current contract is up in two years.

Could be a negotiating ploy - because let's be clear, Chuck has as much bargaining power as any non-NFL analyst (Nantz, Michaels and those dudes are play-by-play folks, and there's a difference) - to make TNT pony up or let ESPN know he could be available.

But Chuck is a treasure, and if this is it, we need to enjoy his walk into the sunset.

Say it ain't so Chuck.

This and that

- Auburn played at home, which means Auburn rolled. Jabari Smith - Mr. Smith if you're nasty - had a career-high 31 against a Vandy team that has improved as much from December as any team in the SEC.

- The Olympic honchos spoke out about Sha'Carri Richardson's racism claims in regard to the drug test rulings. More here, but it sounds like they read Tuesday's 5-at-10 before holding the new conference.

- Buckets of bucks, according to this story Pat Sajak makes $15 million a year. And freight trains of free time, according to the same story, Sajak works four days a month. Mind blown.

- Maybe this is why Freddie Freeman is still unsigned. Apparently, the going rate for sweet-swinging left-handers is rising quicker than gas prices. Before the lockout, the Nationals offered Juan Soto a 13-year deal worth $350 million. Soto said no thanks. My word.

- Speaking of Freddie, deep breaths Jules, but here is speculation from Chipper Jones that there are several franchises pitching woo at the Braves star first baseman. Deep breaths.

- So after a report earlier this week said Arch Manning was down to two schools, there were leaks that it was actually four schools still in consideration. Now comes quotes from Cooper Manning, Arch's dad, that six schools - Texas and Alabama, each of which were in the original two mentioned, as well as Ole Miss, Georgia, LSU and Florida - are in the hunt.

- The sports version of the business axiom of "Location, location, location" is Sunday night's Olympic TV numbers were huge and the best for these Winter Olympics and bigger than all of last summer's Tokyo Games' TV numbers too. In practical terms, the women's bobsled event that aired directly after the Rams' win was the most-bet on event in these games, according to David Purdum, ESPN's gambling beat ace.

Today's questions

If you were Arch Manning, where would you go? Not for nothing, but I am certainly listening to what Lincoln Riley has to say at USC.

From above, can these Mocs find a ticket to the Big Dance without winning the SoCon tournament?

That's right, it's a free-for-all Thursday. Fire away, and if I can't get to them today, they may make the mailbag. Deal? Deal.

As for today, well a couple of all-timers celebrate birthdays today.

Some dudes named Jim Brown and Michael Jordan.

Most iconic player-number combinations, because I think MJ's 23 makes it and could be far left.

Go and remember the mailbag.

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